The Late Late Show, with its title often shortened to The Late Late, is an Irish chat show. It is the world's second longest-running late-night talk show, after the American The Tonight Show.[5] Perceived as the official flagship television programme of Ireland's public service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ),[6] it is regarded as an Irish television institution (even abroad)[7] and is broadcast live across two hours plus in front of a studio audience on Friday nights between September and May at 21.30.

Having maintained the same name and format continuously, The Late Late Show was first broadcast on Friday, 6 July 1962 at 23.20[8] and in colour from 1976. Originating as temporary summer filler for a niche Saturday night audience (airing at 23.30),[6] it later moved to its current home on Friday night schedules. The format has remained largely the same throughout—dialogue, comic sketches, musical performances, discourse on topical issues, it has influenced attitudes of the populace towards approval or disapproval of its chosen topics, directed social change and helped shape Irish societal norms. It averages 650,000 viewers per episode and has consistently achieved RTÉ's highest ratings.[6]

For much of its early life, RTÉ Television Centre's Studio 1 in Donnybrook, Dublin was its home—this original studio accommodated a small audience of about 120; in 1995, The Late Late Show transferred to the more spacious Studio 4, adapted specifically to cater for this and Kenny Live. Three external broadcasts have aired, most recently from the Wexford Opera House on 5 September 2008.[9]

Original host Gay Byrne presented the show until 21 May 1999. Pat Kenny was Byrne's successor hosting the show for 10 years between 1999-2009. Ryan Tubridy now fills the role of presenter, having succeeded Kenny in September 2009. Under Tubridy, first Quinn Group and then Sky Broadband (Seán Quinn having filed for bankruptcy) added sponsorship deals—after a sterile final season with Kenny at the helm.[10][11] Tubridy's arrival coincided with a marked increase in audience ratings[12][13] with some early statistics comparing him to the Byrne era.[14] Kenny was to make an unexpected return as host on 1 February 2013, announced RTÉ on 30 January.[15]

Originally intended as light summer "filler",[17]The Late Late Show soon developed into a forum for contentious opinion and debate, involving topics such as divorce, contraception and a number of areas hitherto unspoken. Much of the populace, especially in the south and west of Ireland, had no previous experience of television, and many were unprepared for The Late Late Show bringing such discussion into their homes (large swathes of Ireland were rural and devoutly Roman Catholic). Indeed, the politician Oliver J. Flanagan, whilst guesting on the show, proclaimed there to have been "no sex in Ireland until Teilifís Éireann went on the air", reflecting this greater indiscretion.[18]Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, was confronted by a guest in the show's first series—a sensational and unprecedented event. Many more such events would follow, each contributing to the folklore and mythical qualities of The Late Late Show.

Two common formats were used: the first—a series of interviews of celebrity guests, most of whom could be defined as Irish or British and involved in the entertainment industry;the second—a defined topic involving live discussion from a panel and studio audience. The latter tended to be far the weightier in content, as people who were directly connected with the defined topic sat in the audience.

Byrne would remain host for thirty-seven years, "retiring" at the close of the millennium (he "unretired" several times afterwards to present such programmes as The Meaning of Life and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?); as of September 2009, Byrne's thirty-seven years remains the longest period through which any individual has hosted a televised talk show. In the late 1960s, with the start of BBC 2 in the neighbouring United Kingdom, Byrne moved back to the country where his career had started. Frank Hall presented The Late Late Show in Byrne's absence. However, after one year, Byrne returned to RTÉ to present his old show, supplemented by his own radio show.[17]

Few of the 1960s editions of The Late Late Show exist, as it was prohibitively expensive to use tape to record at this time.

A minor furore erupted in 1966 when the Bishop of Clonfert condemned The Late Late Show as immoral and Gay Byrne as a promoter of "filth", the condemnation stemmed from a small item on the show in which Byrne was interviewing a number of couples to see how well they knew each other. Byrne asked a Mrs. Fox from Terenure if she could remember what colour her nightdress was on the first night of her married life to her Mr. Fox,[1] the woman first implied it was "transparent" before revealing that she might not have worn an item of clothing to bed that night at all.[1][18] This response was received with laughter by Byrne and the studio audience, with Mrs. Fox then revealing her nightdress had been white.[1] However, the Bishop either misheard or ignored this, feeling the need to protest against this "filthy" programme and the "filth" which was being televised into the nation's homes,[18] the Bishop of Clonfert sent a telegram: "Disgusted with disgraceful performance",[1] prompting a swift RTÉ apology which the Irish Examiner states was similar to the apology the same broadcaster issued during the Brian Cowen nude portraits controversy in 2009.[19]Meath VEC said it was "anti-national", whilst Loughrea Town Council described it as "a dirty programme that should be abolished altogether".[1] The furore died down after a number of weeks, but is still remembered. When the topic featured on the 2008 documentary How The Irish Have Sex broadcast by rival channel TV3, the Irish Independent's Damian Corless said Éamon de Valera "won't be turning on, but will instead be turning in his grave".[1]

On a March 1966 episode of The Late Late Show a debate was held on the Roman Catholic Church. Brian Trevaskis, a young student and President of The Phil Society of Trinity College, making his first television appearance, criticised the Bishop of Galway, Michael Browne for spending so much on a cathedral instead of helping the poor. Trevaskis described the building as a "monstrosity" and referred to the Bishop as a "moron", he was invited back on the show the following week, 6 April 1966, to expand on his opinions. The student referred to the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising, a pivotal moment in Irish history, when he expressed his concern over the devotion of money to building churches in a society where women who were impregnated outside marriage were considered outcasts and as such were vulnerable members of society. Trevaskis claimed Ireland was not a Christian country and told of how, when asked if the bishop knew the meaning of the word "moron", he replied using his uncertainty as to whether the bishop knew the meaning of the word "Christian".[19][20]

In 1992, Bishop Eamonn Casey resigned when it was revealed that he had broken his vow of celibacy having fathered a child with a young American divorcee named Annie Murphy in 1973 during his tenure as Bishop of Kerry;[21] in April 1993, Murphy appeared on The Late Late Show to speak about the affair and their child, Peter. Casey had supported their son financially, but had requested that this be kept quiet to protect his career,[22] at the end of the interview Byrne said if the baby was "half the man his father was" he would be fine and Annie Murphy replied that the boy's mother (meaning herself) was "not so bad either", drawing applause from the studio audience.[23] Casey spent most of his time following the scandal outside Ireland, in an effort to avoid media attention but eventually returned in 2006,[24] he had previously himself been a guest on the show on several occasions – possibly influencing Byrne's apparent scepticism of Murphy's motives and claims.[citation needed] More than twenty years later, the Irish Examiner named this one of its "Top 10 moments of Irish television".[25]

In 1999, Pádraig Flynn, Ireland's EU Commissioner, appeared on the show, during which he commented on Tom Gilmartin and a donation of £50,000 to the Fianna Fáil party. Flynn also talked about "the difficulties" in his own life; he talked of having a salary of £100,000 (Irish Punt) and trying to run three houses, cars and housekeepers along with regular travel. The performance was seen as very out of touch, at a time when house prices in Ireland were rising dramatically, and the average industrial wage was £15,380.[26] Flynn also made remarks concerning Tom Gilmartin, a Luton-based Irish developer and investor; in response to Byrne's question that Flynn knew Gilmartin, Flynn answered; "Oh yes, yes. I haven't seen him now for some years. I met him. He's a Sligo man who went to England, made a lot of money, came back, wanted to do a lot of business in Ireland, didn't work out for him, didn't work out for him. He's not well, his wife isn't well. He's out of sorts." Flynn seemed to attack the credibility of Gilmartin at a time when he was making allegations in the media of planning irregularities in Dublin. Gilmartin responded by publicising details of Flynn's failed attempts to meet with Gilmartin to get Gilmartin to change his evidence, this led to Flynn's career being effectively ended, because the government would not endorse him for reappointment to the European Commission after its mass-resignation that year. This "vanity platform" on The Late Late Show saw, as the Irish Examiner later referred to it, Flynn "managed to get both feet into his mouth and talk at the same time".[19]

In January 1966, Victor Lownes, a representative of Playboy, was expected to appear on The Late Late Show; however, he was axed when he revealed that he hoped to recruit young women to work as Bunnies in Playboy clubs.[1]

Women's rights

Elderly feminist campaigner Hilary Boyle criticised the Irish government when she appeared on The Late Late Show during the 1970s, calling them "all so afraid of a belt of the crozier (the Bishop's stick)".[19]

Contraceptive train

When several women, amongst them June Levine and Nell McCafferty, carried bags of condoms from Belfast on a train in protest at Ireland's strict anti-contraception laws in 1971, The Late Late Show became involved in the incident when one of the women, Mary Kenny, appeared in the studio to say that the law was "pretty damn weird".[27]

Lesbian nuns

In 1979, Gay Byrne interviewed a lesbian on The Late Late Show, escaping public condemnation in the process.[1] However, when a couple of former nuns who were lesbians were booked to appear in 1985, a High Court case ensued and calls came for The Late Late Show to be axed altogether as it would "greatly undermine Christian moral values" and "the respect of the general public for nuns" to feature the pair on live television.[1] Protestors gathered to recite decades of the rosary, sing hymns as the show got underway.[1]

AIDS special

An AIDS special in the 1980s included a controversial demonstration on live television of how to attach a condom to a finger.[1]

As a response to a change in legislation, it became possible for RTÉ to interview Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams in 1994. Byrne set up a show, with a panel of public figures, Jim Kemmy, Dermot Ahern,[30]Michael McDowell, Hugh Leonard and Austin Currie. The last three openly loathed Adams. Byrne himself refused to shake hands with Adams, he maintained confrontational body language, and stayed a distance of over three metres away from Adams throughout the show. However, Adams proved more skillful at debate than was expected, during the show a number people phoned in stating that Byrne and the other panellists were acting "hostile and aggressive" towards Adams. Byrne also had to state that nobody was specially invited to the audience,[31] the attempt to damage Adams politically backfired, as it appeared too obvious that he was being 'set up'. Indeed, Sinn Féin's popularity rating in the Republic increased significantly after the interview, with the Irish Examiner reporting that 70 per cent of people held a favourable view of Adams after the show.[32]

Terry Keane

The Late Late Show continued to cause controversy right up to Byrne's departure. On his second last show he interviewed the gossip columnist Terry Keane, who went on to reveal a long affair with the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey. Haughey, a lifelong acquaintance of Byrne, had intended to be available for the last show, but went into hiding from the media as a result of the revelations. Haughey had appealed to Keane not to reveal her story. Keane was publicising her book covering her life in Irish public life, and her career as a journalist with the Irish Independent newspaper group.

Bill Murray

One show featured an interview with Ghostbusters actor Bill Murray. In the audience, comedian Jason Byrne masqueraded as a man who had set up a paranormal investigation agency, similar to that in the film. Murray responded by making a joke regarding his experience in a local restaurant.

The flexibility of the show was augmented by Byrne's position not merely as the show's presenter but also as its producer for much of his period with the show, he intentionally reminded the viewer that the show was being broadcast live through his interaction with people working behind the scenes. Cameras were visible, and if an audience member was invited to speak, the boom microphone could be seen swing in overhead, some of Byrne's phrases became well known; when instructing that a piece of videotape be played, he invariably announced "you can roll it there, Colette", chat to the floor manager, inquiring as to what telephone line a caller was ringing in on, and on some shows would extend its running time by fifteen or thirty minutes, discussing the extra running time with the floor staff and production team as an "aside" during an interview. The effect of all these mannerisms was said to add to the sense of realism in the show—that, as the theme music at the end of the show stated: "It started on The Late Late Show." This was a clip of the Nat King Cole song "The Late Late Show", which appeared on his 1959 album Big Band Cole.

On 21 May 1999, Byrne presented his last edition of The Late Late Show, the show, beginning at 21.30, lasted four hours (twice as long as a normal edition of The Late Late Show at the time). Tributes flooded in from all quarters for the host. High-profile guests on this final show included author Salman Rushdie and comedian Billy Connolly.[33]

When Byrne left, The Late Late Show dominated RTÉ's ratings viewership figures, coming in consistently either at number 1 or number 2,a some columnists writing in the Sunday Independent and The Irish Times called for the show be dropped as its success was linked too intricately with Byrne to work with anyone else. RTÉ, however, retained the show justifying the decision as it being a powerful brand that attracted extensive advertising revenue. Contemporary media reports speculated that Patrick Kielty, Marion Finucane, Gerry Ryan and Gerry Kelly would take over.[35] However, RTÉ gave the show to Pat Kenny, who for nearly a decade had presented his own Kenny Live show in the Saturday night time slot. Even after seven years at the helm of that show Kenny was often criticised in the media for presentation style.[36]

Kenny and his staff changed many aspects of The Late Late Show, its distinctive title musicb was changed, as was the set design and studio layout. Guests, instead of remaining on, were involved only in that part of the show when the focus was them. A new set abandoned the traditional presenter's desk. Unlike Byrne, Kenny ensured his guests were announced in advance. Other than the title, the use of an owl as the show's symbol and the traditional edition marketing toys to children and their parents,c little of the original remained the same. Byrne's two catch-phrases, "It started on The Late Late Show", and "one for everyone in the audience"d were dropped, the latter of these phrases has since been revived under Kenny's successor, but was not much in use when Kenny was at the helm.

As 24 November 2006 edition of the show was getting underway, an intruder in a brown jacket—named as Mr Paul Stokes from Monkstown, County Dublin—emerged from the fourth wall to confront a visibly startled Pat Kenny, who was engaged in essential preparations for the interviewing of three guests—named as You're a Star judges Thomas Black, Linda Martin, and Brendan O'Connor. The man approached Kenny, his back to the cameras, the man crouched down to bring himself closer to Kenny and said: "Howye Pat! You're a censor! How dare you! Gay Byrne and you are ... [grunt] ... you're insufferable arseholes. You arsehole, you piece of shit, you piece of shit," live and, ironically, uncensored as guests and audience watched on bemused. Kenny, at a loss for what to do, repeatedly uttered "thank you, thank you". Viewers were treated to a premature commercial break while RTÉ had the man cornered, snared, removed from the set and led from the building. When the show returned to television screens, Kenny announced to viewers, "Sorry for that rude interruption" and began his interview. The man was arrested but later released.[37]

Today FM presenter Jenny Kelly famously went into labour whilst laughing as the incident unfolded on her television screen. Her initial intention had been, she said, to sit down for an evening of Kenny and to "bore the baby into arriving".[38] Further, it was later revealed[39] that the intruder's daughter was a member of The Late Late Show crew. Shortly after the initial incident, the man rammed his vehicle into the front entrance of RTÉ's Donnybrook facility; no-one was injured.[40] He was also reported to have stood outside Kenny's house shouting insults[41] and to have painted threatening messages on walls near the house,[42] although a charge of harassment connected with the case was dropped,[43] the man was later sentenced to two years in prison for ramming the RTÉ entrance.[44]

In late October 2004, three weeks after Rachel O'Reilly was found murdered at her home in the Naul, north County Dublin, the mother and husband of the woman, Rose Callaly and Joe O'Reilly, were Kenny's guests. Callaly's trauma was evident; O'Reilly calmly dealt with Kenny's questions. O'Reilly was later arrested. Two years later, he was convicted of the crime.[45][46][47][48]

In 2007, an interview with Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias proved awkward for Kenny. When Kenny persisted in asking about his relationship with the tennis player Anna Kournikova, Iglesias responded: "You ask the questions so dry and so seriously that it kind of scares me."[50]

"Jerry Seinfield"

In 2007, Kenny famously introduced the U.S. comedian Jerry Seinfeld as "Jerry Seinfield". Much uncomfortable chat on the topic of bees (Seinfeld being on the show to promote Bee Movie) ensued before Kenny presented Seinfeld with a cheap imitation of his favourite superhero, Superman.[50][51]

Ticket tearing

In November 2008, Kenny telephoned a competition winner for a prize of a weekend in Dublin, shopping money and two tickets to the very much sought after "Late Late Toy Show" episode. The winner—a woman from Cork city—picked up her telephone and correctly answered the competition question ("Roald Dahl"),[52] the woman's apparent lack of enthusiasm prompted Kenny to turn to Charlie Bird (who had been his previous guest) and say: "If they tortured her, they couldn't get anything out of this woman."[52] Bird laughed.[52] When asked who would be accompanying her using the other ticket, the woman said she was "not particularly interested" in the tickets and tried explaining her idea that they instead be raffled so that a worthier winner might be found.[50][52][53][54] Kenny, the phone receiver perched between his ear and shoulder, pulled the offending sheets of paper from his breast pocket, tore them and said: "I think I'll give up this job".[50]

Pete Doherty

In February 2009, an interview with the English rock musician proved awkward for Kenny with the presenter repeatedly asking about the singer's private life and showing no interest in his music.[50][52]

Senate first

In March 2009, a debate was held pitting twenty senators against journalists John Drennan and Ian O'Doherty on a proposal to abolish Seanad Éireann. Executive producer Larry Masterson described it as a "first ever for TV".[4]

RTÉ launched the last revamp while Kenny was host on Friday 7 September 2007—involving a new set but retaining the title sequence in use since 2003. Designed by Darragh Treacy of RTÉ Production Design, that set consisted of metal, timber and polycarbonate, with carpet as a floor covering; it made for a more complex and layered background than the previous arrangement, and was heavily dependent on saturated lighting and modern construction materials. According to Treacy: "I wanted something contemporary that would be architectural and structural, [for example] the horizontal lines and boxes that you see running throughout the set. [...] The back wall of the [chat area] has textured panels which just take the light beautifully and give a great three-dimensional effect. Then the polycarbonate boxes sit in front of that, the fins – the large timber sections – to the left of the chat area are replicated in the entertainment area as well, and are large pieces of timber with a paint finish that take the light."[55]

A desk also reappeared, as initially continued after Byrne's departure but disposed of shortly afterwards despite a final-attempt redesign in 2000. Kenny noted: "After eight seasons of sitting around, lounging around, as if in a living room, we decided just for a change that we'd put the desk in and see what difference it made. We'll work with it: I mean if it doesn't work after five or six weeks, it goes – if it does work, well we'll find ways of using it effectively. I mean it does put a little barrier between myself and the guest, but on the other hand it can be very useful for a formal interview where you don't want to be too intimate with your guest if it's a little bit antagonistic, whereas in the past I was always reclining and even if I had to be a bit aggressive with a guest the body language was a little bit confusing in that regard. So we'll see."[55] In an apparent effort to resolve such problems, the new desk had more of a table design with a transparent underside, was angled to be narrower at the guest end, and was composed of thin elegant profiles of timber and glass.

A new entrance flight of steps was also introduced, somewhat redolent of former Kenny Live sets. Treacy again: "I wanted a grand entrance, but I also wanted an entrance that was part of the background of the set, so they arrive down and join Pat – and it's a feature walk-on for guests". Kenny approved of the steps: "As you come down the steps, be it myself or a guest, you're slowly revealed: more and more of your body is revealed to the audience until finally you're standing in the 'doorway' as it were. I think it'll be interesting; a more dramatic entrance than we've had for the past three or four years." Irish company Design Classics Direct provided new chairs, made to an original 1929 design by Eileen Gray.

On 27 March 2009, Kenny announced live on air without warning his intention to stand down.

On 29 May 2009, an average share of 55 per cent of the total TV audience[56] tuned in to watch Kenny present his last edition of The Late Late Show as regular host (he returned for one night in 2013 when his successor was unavailable). An outdoor event was set up for the occasion on the RTÉ campus, at the end of the show, Joe Duffy presented Kenny with a cake in the shape of a "10", to mark his ten years of presenting. The Edge of U2 also gave Kenny glasses and a guitar.[57]

After two months of speculation, Ryan Tubridy emerged as Kenny's successor.[58] Original host Gay Byrne gave Tubridy his blessing: "He has all the qualities required, the light deft touch together with a serious mind. I think it's a great adventure that he's setting off on".[59] Other personalities tipped for the role had included Gerry Ryan and Miriam O'Callaghan.[60] O'Callaghan, whom some media commentators considered favourite for the job,[61] claimed she had turned down an offer, so as to keep her Prime Time slot and spend time with her eight children.[62]

Tubridy presented his first programme on 4 September 2009[63] with a custom picked staff,[64] a new set and house band,[65] he emerged from behind a red curtain and walked to a wooden desk, at which he sat in the same €3,000-plus Irish designed chair as the actress Meryl Streep in the film The Devil Wears Prada.[66] Guests on this first show included Brian Cowen, Saoirse Ronan, Brian McFadden, Joan Collins, Cherie Blair, and Niall Quinn.[67][68] With an overall audience share of 62 per cent, it was the most watched—outside the annual toy extravaganza—since Gay Byrne's retirement in May 1999,[69] this promising start would not last, however; audience ratings had declined by Tubridy's sixth season.[70] Another notable occurrence in Tubridy's first season was when the show aired on Good Friday for the first time in 15 years in 2010.[71] Later the same month (April), the show's former hosts, Gay Byrne and Pat Kenny, alongside fellow RTÉ broadcasters Joe Duffy, Dave Fanning and Brenda Donohue, joined Tubridy to discuss the sudden death of one-time host and colleague Gerry Ryan on 30 April 2010.[72]

On 1 February 2013, Pat Kenny returned to host that night's edition when Tubridy's father died.[15]

In 2015, Tubridy's tone and choice of questions when interviewing Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy in relation to the campaign against the implementation of a water tax was much criticised.[78][79] Opponents of the water tax praised Murphy on social media for what was said to have been his restraint during the interview.[80][81] Julien Mercille, the academic and writer of The Political Economy and Media Coverage of the European Economic Crisis: The Case of Ireland, observed that "Tubridy was pretty good from the standpoint of protecting government interests. [...] He asked all the right questions to try to discredit the water charges protests and Paul Murphy".[82]

Tubridy hopes his time as host to be closer to Kenny's ten years than Byrne's thirty-seven stating that Kenny made the right tenure as host.[83]

There have been at least four occasions on which another presenter has hosted the show, the first was when Byrne became unexpectedly and seriously ill. Frequent panelist Ted Bonner presented instead, the second time was towards the end of a show about feminism, when Byrne ushered a young Marian Finucane into his seat to present the remainder of the show.[84] On another occasion, radio broadcaster and former news reader Andy O'Mahony replaced Byrne for an interview with journalist Deirdre Purcell, who had ghostwritten Byrne's autobiography.[85]

After Kenny's mother suddenly died in October 2008, Gerry Ryan was announced as guest presenter for that week's show with less than 48 hours' notice.[86] Kenny announced his decision to quit live on air in March 2009,[87] on 11 May that year, RTÉ announced Ryan Tubridy as Kenny successor.[58] Kenny in turn replaced Tubridy on 1 February 2013 for one night only, due to the death of Tubridy's father.[15]

Since the early 1970s, an annual Christmas edition entitled "The Late Late Toy Show" has been held in late November or early December, where various children's toys are showcased to the audience before the Christmas season.

Although not the original theme, the theme music most associated with the show is the instrumental introduction from Chris Andrews' 1965 single To Whom It Concerns, which was in use as early as 1971 and used until Byrne's final show, the version used on the show was proceeded with a distinctive drum roll, followed by a whistle which would then segue into To Whom It Concerns. This was always accompanied by the spoken introduction: "Ladies and gentlemen, to whom it concerns, it's "The Late Late Show", and here is your host, Gay Byrne", during the same era, a clip from The Late Late Show by Nat King Cole was used as the closing music. The Late Late Show was unusual during Byrne's era in that the show's production credits ran over the opening title sequence, and only a brief still of the show's logo was shown at the end.

During the Kenny era, To Whom It Concerns was replaced, although the new theme incorporated elements of the distinctive drum roll from the old theme. Three different arrangements were used during this era, the show's production credits were moved to the end at this point, and the closing theme has been the same as the opening since 1999.

A new set and title sequence was introduced for Ryan Tubridy's first show, with Chris Andrews's To Whom It Concerns returning as the theme music after a ten-year absence, albeit in a new arrangement performed by The Late Late Show Band and RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

Therapy?, invited to perform in 1994, were anticipated to perform their cover version of the Joy Division composition "Isolation"; disheartened with their treatment however, they decided to perform their own composition "Knives" instead, without prior notice. The performance featured two instances of the expletive "fuck", a word normally expected to be omitted, the nation was affronted.[94] Therapy? returned the following year to perform another of their compositions, this one titled "Stories".[95]

In 1995, the English independent rock band Pop Will Eat Itself defaced the studio whilst in the midst of a performance, the group were invited back to Ireland by Byrne having performed in the country again.[96]

Tammy Wynette and Ray Lynam duet on March 22, 1991 of "Til A Tear Becomes A Rose."

Prior to 2016, the Irish representative for the Eurovision Song Contest was chosen annually through a national song competition called Eurosong, from 2009-2015, the Eurosong final was held as a special edition of The Late Late Show.[97] The five finalists perform their songs live on the show, with voting done as a 50-50 split between regional juries and a public televote, the show also includes celebrity interviews, guest performances, and a panel of Eurovision experts who discuss the performances with Tubridy.[98][99][100][101][102]

^b An instrumental version of the Chris Andrews 1965 UK Top Twenty hit "To Whom It Concerns"

^cThe Late Late Toy Show, broadcast in late November or early December, on which children and special guests advise on the latest toys available for the Christmas market each year.

^d When having shown some item on the show, Byrne would announce that there was "one for everyone in the audience" (i.e. that each person sitting in the studio audience would receive their own version of said item).

^McGreevy, Ronan (8 September 2009). "1.6m tuned in for Tubridy 'Late Late'". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2009. In total, about 1.6 million tuned in at some stage of the programme, making it the most watched Late Late Show, outside the toy show, since Gay Byrne's retirement in May 1999.

^Duffy, Joe. "Just Joe: My Autobiography". As a way of circumventing the awkwardness of the regular host talking about himself, Andy was inveigled into interviewing Deirdre Purcell, who had helped Gay Byrne write his autobiography, The Time of My Life. Andy's opening question must have sent thousands scurrying for the back of the couch: 'Did you want to sleep with him?' Deirdre nearly followed her jaw as it hit the floor!

^Mcguire, Kevin (10 December 2009). "The longest journey home". Galway Advertiser. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2009. "I started singing in 1985," Mary says. [...] Coughlan leaped ahead of her contemporaries when she was invited to appear on The Late Late Show. After a memorable television debut she was ready to take on the world. "Shay Healy and Siobhan McHugh had done a show called Sounds Promising and I recorded three songs for that," she says. "When they were mixing it in the studio Gay Byrne heard my voice and a few days later booked me to appear on The Late Late Show. Back then it meant so much more than it does now because we only really had one channel in Ireland. [...] On the back of her slot on the show Mary's debut release, Tired and Emotional, shot to the top of Irish album charts. Within a few short years she was also enjoying success in Britain and across Europe.

1.
Gay Byrne
–
Gabriel Mary Gay Byrne is an Irish presenter of radio and television. His most notable role was first host of The Late Late Show over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999, the Late Late Show is the worlds second longest-running chat show. His time working in Britain with Granada Television saw him become the first person to introduce The Beatles on screen, from 1973 until 1998, Byrne presented The Gay Byrne Hour—later The Gay Byrne Show when it expanded to two hours—on RTÉ Radio 1 each weekday morning. Since retiring from his radio and television shows, Byrne has presented several other programmes. The Meaning of Life and For One Night Only on RTÉ One, in 2006 he was elected Chairman of Irelands Road Safety Authority. Since retiring he has become the Elder Lemon of Irish broadcasting, in 2010, The Irish Times said Byrne was unquestionably the most influential radio and television man in the history of the Irish State. In 2011, he was approached to become President of Ireland but declined to run, Byrne is the son of Edward Byrne, who joined the Irish Volunteers in 1912, and subsequently joined the 19th Hussars, Infantry Division, at the commencement of World War I. He later fought during the Irish War of Independence and he fought throughout most of the War, including at OConnell Street. Shortly after the War, Edward Byrne was employed by Guinness St. Jamess Gate Brewery where he worked for most of the rest of his life. He worked on the barges that operated on the river Liffey, transporting wooden casks from St. Jamess Gate Brewery to ships at the North Wall, Dublin. Edward Byrne was the son of Alexander Byrne, a coachman to the Earl of Meath, Byrnes father, Edward, married his mother, Annie Carroll, at Belfast, in 1917, when briefly home on leave from the War. The two had met near Bray just before the War began, both of them were from County Wicklow. Gay Byrne is the youngest of six children from that marriage, however, one child, his brother Joseph, died as a one-week-old infant. Listed in descending order, the children are Edward, Al, Ernest. Byrne was born on 5 August 1934 and grew up in Dublin and he first lived with his family at 17 Rialto Street, Rialto, Dublin, before his parents moved to 124 South Circular Road, Dublin, in 1944. Byrnes mother, Annie, died in late 1964, Byrne attended Rialto National School and a number of other schools for short periods. Subsequently, he was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers at Synge Street CBS and he and two classmates bought a jazz record when Byrne was fourteen years old in January 1948, at a time when Radio Éireann refused to play it because of its licentious content. In December 2009, Byrne returned to his old school on Synge Street to launch an online childrens book club

2.
Pat Kenny
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Patrick Pat Kenny is a veteran Irish broadcaster, who currently hosts the daily radio show The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk and the current affairs show Pat Kenny Tonight on TV3. Prior to this, Kenny had a 41 year high-profile career at RTÉ and he presented radio show Today with Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio 1 each weekday morning between 10,00 and midday until 2013. He hosted The Late Late Show from September 1999 until May 2009 and he presented the current affairs programme, The Frontline, each Monday night from 2009 until its axing in 2013. He is the holder of a Jacobs Award and was cited as the highest paid employee in RTÉs possession. He was named 23rd most influential person of 2009 by the magazine Village and he began his broadcasting career in parallel to his academic day-job by working as a continuity announcer on RTÉ radio in the mid-1970s. He subsequently became a disc jockey. In 1986, Kenny won a Jacobs Award for his versatility in presenting three diverse radio shows, Saturday View on RTÉ Radio 1, and, on RTÉ 2fm, The Kenny Report. Kenny became a broadcaster on RTÉs Today Tonight, a current affairs programme in the mid-1980s. He moved in a direction for a current affairs presenter when he filled the role of co-presenter of the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. This he did alongside Michelle Rocca at the Royal Dublin Societys Simmonscourt Pavilion, Kenny continued to be associated with Eurovision, providing television commentary for Irish viewers of the event on nine occasions from 1991 to 1999. He was criticised for referring on-air to the transsexual Israeli singer Dana International as he, she or it during the 1998 edition of the contest and he presented The Pat Kenny Show. Subsequently, he had a guest slot on the chat show Saturday Live. He went on to host the show permanently and its title was changed to Kenny Live, there was a much publicised rivalry between Kenny Live. Broadcast on Saturday nights and The Late Late Show, broadcast on Friday nights, had been conceived as preserving the weekend slot on a Saturday night to prevent loss of viewers and corresponding loss of advertising revenue. Gay Byrne retired from presenting The Late Late Show in 1999, Kenny was announced as Byrnes replacement on 24 May 1999. He was in Israel for the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest when the announcement was made that he was taking over at the age of 51, at the same time, he can never quite let go of that urge in him that we know how smart he is. Among the highlights of Kennys career in presenting The Late Late Show was his Toy Show interview with comedian Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld, who had previously lashed out at Larry King over his ignorance, remained tight-lipped, even as Pat Kenny referred to him as Jerry Sein-field. Kenny also came under fire after an interview on The Late Late Show with Babyshambles lead singer Pete Doherty, Kenny repeatedly questioned Doherty over his much talked about drug habits, with Doherty appearing visibly uncomfortable

3.
Gerry Ryan
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Gerard Gerry Ryan was an Irish presenter of radio and television employed by Raidió Teilifís Éireann. He presented The Gerry Ryan Show on radio station RTÉ 2fm each weekday morning from 1988 until hours before his sudden death and he was presented with a Jacobs Award for this show in 1990. Ryan hosted several series of shows, including Secrets, Gerry Ryan Tonight, Ryantown, Gerry Ryans Hitlist, Ryan Confidential. In 1987, he earned notoriety and the moniker Lambo after an unpleasant incident in Connemara, an autobiography, Would the Real Gerry Ryan Please Stand Up, was published in October 2008. He married Morah Brennan in 1988 and they had five children, Lottie, Rex, Bonnie, Elliott, in 1997, Morah famously telephoned her husbands show and, under the name Norah, told half a million listeners intimate details concerning his personal household habits. Gerry and Morah announced their separation in March 2008 and he soon began a relationship with the former South African Ambassador to Ireland and the then UNICEF Ireland executive director, Melanie Verwoerd. Ryan was found dead in his Dublin flat on 30 April 2010, Ryan was born in Dublin in 1956. His godfather was broadcaster Eamonn Andrews and he learnt to shoot with Charles Haugheys children. He had two brothers, Michael and Vincent and he was educated at St Pauls College, Raheny. Ryans mother died on Christmas Day 2006, the trio brought their shows on tour around Ireland. Ryan said they dressed as if they were in a band and behaved as such as well, booking into awful hotels, drinking heavily and their excessive talking has led to Ryan dubbing them the three big-mouths on at night-time. They were good friends, Fanning was a kind of hyperactive, Southside rock guru and Cagney was this obsessive, the trio also started to put on live shows, some of which Ryan described as being attended by crowds of 20,000. In 1987, Ryan and a group of volunteers spent time in the countryside of Connemara as part of The Gay Byrne Show, Ryan claimed to have killed and eaten a lamb to survive, earning him the nickname Lambo, though the story turned out to be a hoax. The incident has been adapted for the stage, Ryans style was considered by some to be that of a motor-mouth shock jock. Ryan was noted for the enjoyment he took in discussing topics such as sex, bodily functions, the Gerry Ryan Show, began in March 1988 when he was offered a three-hour morning radio slot. The G. Ryan Show, running from 09, 00–12,00 on weekday mornings, consisted of interviews, each morning he would begin by discussing the headlines of that mornings newspapers. Ryan presented RTÉ 2fms only show which was regularly among the top twenty Irish radio shows in Ireland and this meant RTÉ would have earned €27,000 through advertising from Ryan per day. The defining moment of the came in 1993, when a rape victim, Lavinia Kerwick

4.
Ryan Tubridy
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Ryan Tubridy, nicknamed Tubs, is an Irish broadcaster, a presenter of live shows on radio and television in Ireland. Tubridy is the presenter on Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Tubridy previously presented RTÉ 2fm breakfast radio show The Full Irish, for five seasons from 2004 until 2009, he presented the Saturday night TV chat show Tubridy Tonight on RTÉ One. He has also hosted the Rose of Tralee contest on two occasions. As part of a deal with HarperCollins—and in a nod to his passion for U. S. politics—Tubridy penned JFK in Ireland. He is currently working on a second book, born in Booterstown, Dublin, in 1973, Tubridy was educated at Carysfort National School and Blackrock College. Experienced in Greek and Latin, he was schooled alongside Craig Doyle and Ryle Nugent, One of five children, Tubridys siblings are Judith, Niall, Rachel and Garrett. Garrett ran unsuccessfully for the Pembroke-Rathmines ward of Dublin City Council at the 2009 local elections, during the election campaign Ryan was advised against making public appearances alongside his brother. His father, Patrick Tubridy of Blackrock, who died in January 2013, was a medical practitioner, Seán Tubridy was the only son of Patrick Tubridy and Jane Waldron. King Edward III of England is an ancestor, as revealed on Who Do You Think You Are. in 2009. Via Edward III, Tubridy is also descended from John, King of England, Tubridys mother is Catherine Andrews, whose father, Todd Andrews, was a prominent associate of Fianna Fáil founder Éamon de Valera and held a number of posts in semi-state companies. A maternal uncle, Niall Andrews, was a TD and MEP, while another maternal uncle, another first cousin, David Andrews Jr, is a comedian who works under the pseudonym of David McSavage. Tubridy started in broadcasting at the age of 12, reviewing books for the RTÉ 2FM show Poporama presented by Ruth Buchanan, after leaving college he became a runner in RTÉ, initially working on The Gerry Ryan Show as maker of tea and coffee. Tubridy said at the death of Gerry Ryan that “The moment I set foot in RTÉ, he put his wing around me and said, Im going to look after you. ”He credits Ryan for his kindness in a place which is so full of ego and bizarre resentment. Tubridy was also influenced by the nerd made good style of British broadcaster Chris Evans, later he worked as a reporter for Today with Pat Kenny, as well as occasionally presenting the radio news show Five Seven Live. In the summer of 1999, Tubridy presented Morning Glory on RTÉ Radio 1, from 2002 until 2005 he presented RTÉ 2fms morning breakfast show, The Full Irish. The move to the morning by Head of 2fm John Clarke was seen as risky, with station insiders disapproving, within one year its ratings had soared and Tubridy was given a major award. When The Full Irish ended it was the second most popular radio programme in Ireland, Clarke later described moving Tubridy to the morning as the best decision of his 25-year career in radio

5.
Chris Andrews (singer)
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Christopher Frederick Chris Andrews is an English singer-songwriter, whose musical career started in the late 1950s. Andrews was born in Romford, Essex, England, and by his mid teens had formed his own group, Chris Ravel, on 14 March 1959, he made his British television debut, performing on the Oh, Boy. show. He would later return in April to perform a cover of Cliff Richards, for Adam Faith, Andrews wrote The First Time and We Are in Love, and then a string of hits for Sandie Shaw. They included Girl Dont Come, Ill Stop at Nothing, Message Understood, the latter remained a chart topper in the UK Singles Chart for three weeks. Girl Dont Come was covered by Cher on her debut album, as well as obtaining a high placing in the UK chart with Yesterday Man, it also climbed to No.1 in Ireland and Germany. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc, later releases were not as successful, but his own hits are seen as early examples of bluebeat influenced white pop music. In South Africa, his single releases proved particularly popular, with Pretty Belinda, Carol OK. Yo Yo reached No.7 at the end of 1970, Andrews remains active in his career as a singer-songwriter, working primarily in continental Europe and in the United Kingdom. He lives with his second wife Alexandra, who is also his manager, in Germany and Spain. net chris-andrews. de Chris Andrews discography, forum, and marketplace at Discogs

6.
Nat King Cole
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Nathaniel Adams Coles, known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He was widely noted for his baritone voice, performing in big band and jazz genres. Cole was one of the first African Americans to host a television variety show. His recordings remained popular worldwide after his death from cancer in February 1965. Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17,1919 and he had three brothers—Eddie, Ike, and Freddy —and a half-sister, Joyce Coles. Each of his brothers pursued careers in music, when Nat was four years old, he and his family moved to North Chicago, Illinois, where his father, Edward Coles, became a Baptist minister. Nat learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles and his first performance was of Yes. We Have No Bananas at the age of four and he began formal lessons at 12 and eventually learned not only jazz and gospel music but also Western classical music, he performed from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff. The family again moved to the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, where he attended Wendel Phillips High School, Cole would sneak out of the house and hang around outside clubs, listening to artists such as Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines and Jimmie Noone. He participated in Walter Dyetts renowned music program at DuSable High School, inspired by the performances of Hines, Cole began his performing career in the mid-1930s while still a teenager, adopting the name Nat Cole. Cole left Chicago in 1936 to lead a band in a revival of Eubie Blakes revue Shuffle Along and his older brother, Eddie, a bass player, soon joined Coles band, and they made their first recording in 1936, under Eddies name. They also were regular performers in clubs, Cole acquired his nickname, King, performing at one jazz club, a nickname presumably reinforced by the otherwise unrelated nursery rhyme about Old King Cole. He was also a pianist in a tour of Shuffle Along. When it suddenly failed in Long Beach, California, Cole decided to remain there and he later returned to Chicago in triumph to play such venues as the Edgewater Beach Hotel.00 per week. The trio played in Failsworth through the late 1930s and recorded many radio transcriptions for Capitol Transcriptions, Cole was the pianist and also the leader of the combo. Radio was important to the King Cole Trios rise in popularity and their first broadcast was with NBCs Blue Network in 1938. It was followed by performances on NBCs Swing Soiree, in the 1940s, the trio appeared on the radio shows Old Gold, The Chesterfield Supper Club and Kraft Music Hall. The King Cole Trio performed twice on CBS Radios variety show The Orson Welles Almanac in 1944, according to legend, Coles singing career did not start until a drunken barroom patron demanded that he sing Sweet Lorraine

7.
Republic of Ireland
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Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a sovereign state in north-western Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, which is located on the part of the island. The state shares its land border with Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. It is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, Saint Georges Channel to the south-east, and it is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The head of government is the Taoiseach, who is elected by the Dáil and appointed by the President, the state was created as the Irish Free State in 1922 as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was officially declared a republic in 1949, following the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, Ireland became a member of the United Nations in December 1955. It joined the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union, after joining the EEC, Ireland enacted a series of liberal economic policies that resulted in rapid economic growth. The country achieved considerable prosperity between the years of 1995 and 2007, which known as the Celtic Tiger period. This was halted by a financial crisis that began in 2008. However, as the Irish economy was the fastest growing in the EU in 2015, Ireland is again quickly ascending league tables comparing wealth and prosperity internationally. For example, in 2015, Ireland was ranked as the joint sixth most developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index and it also performs well in several national performance metrics, including freedom of the press, economic freedom and civil liberties. Ireland is a member of the European Union and is a member of the Council of Europe. The 1922 state, comprising 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, was styled, the Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, provides that the name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland. Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 states, It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland. The 1948 Act does not name the state as Republic of Ireland, because to have done so would have put it in conflict with the Constitution. The government of the United Kingdom used the name Eire, and, from 1949, Republic of Ireland, for the state, as well as Ireland, Éire or the Republic of Ireland, the state is also referred to as the Republic, Southern Ireland or the South. In an Irish republican context it is referred to as the Free State or the 26 Counties. From the Act of Union on 1 January 1801, until 6 December 1922, during the Great Famine, from 1845 to 1849, the islands population of over 8 million fell by 30%

8.
Irish language
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Irish, also referred to as Gaelic or Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people. Irish enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland and it is also among the official languages of the European Union. The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island of Ireland and it has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. The fate of the language was influenced by the power of the English state in Ireland. Elizabethan officials viewed the use of Irish unfavourably, as being a threat to all things English in Ireland and its decline began under English rule in the 17th century. In the latter part of the 19th century, there was a decrease in the number of speakers. Irish-speaking areas were hit especially hard, by the end of British rule, the language was spoken by less than 15% of the national population. Since then, Irish speakers have been in the minority, efforts have been made by the state, individuals and organisations to preserve, promote and revive the language, but with mixed results. Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates of native speakers ranged from 20,000 to 80,000 people. In the 2011 Census, these numbers had increased to 94,000 and 1.3 million, there are several thousand Irish speakers in Northern Ireland. It has been estimated that the active Irish-language scene probably comprises 5 to 10 per cent of Irelands population, there has been a significant increase in the number of urban Irish speakers, particularly in Dublin. In Gaeltacht areas, however, there has been a decline of the use of Irish. Údarás na Gaeltachta predicted that, by 2025, Irish will no longer be the language in any of the designated Gaeltacht areas. Survey data suggest that most Irish people think highly of Irish as a marker of identity. It has also argued that newer urban groups of Irish speakers are a disruptive force in this respect. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil the name of the language is Gaeilge, before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge, originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in Classical Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Classical Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish, the modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent dh in the middle of Gaedhilge, whereas Goidelic languages, used to refer to the language family including Irish, comes from Old Irish

9.
Donnybrook, Dublin
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Donnybrook is a district of Dublin, Ireland. It is situated on the southside of the city, in the Dublin 4 postal district and it was once part of the Pembroke Township. Its neighbouring suburbs are Ballsbridge, Sandymount, Ranelagh and Clonskeagh and it is also a civil parish mainly situated in the old barony of Dublin. Donnybrook Fair dates from a charter of King John of England in 1204 and was held annually until 1866 and it began as a fair for livestock and agricultural produce but later declined, growing into a more of a carnival and fun fair. Drunkenness, fighting, and hasty marriages became common place and the people of Donnybrook were anxious that it should cease, eventually, the fairs reputation for tumult was its undoing. From the 1790s on there were campaigns against the drunken brawl the fair had become, after a good deal of local fund raising, the patent was bought by a group of prominent residents and clergy, bringing about its demise. The Fair took place on lands now occupied by Donnybrook Rugby Ground, the word donnybrook has since entered the English language to describe a rowdy brawl. Donnybrook Castle was an Elizabethan mansion and residence of the Ussher family, james Ussher was appointed Archbishop of Armagh in the Church of Ireland by Queen Elizabeth I of England. The mansion was replaced in 1795 by the existing Georgian house and it is now occupied by the Religious Sisters of Charity. Donnybrook Graveyard dates back to the 8th century and was once the location of a church founded by St Broc and it was also the site of Catholic and Protestant churches, both called St Marys. It is possible that the wall on the side of the cemetery is the oldest man made structure still existing in Donnybrook. The brick chimney behind the cemetery was built on the site of a marble works. The river Dodder runs through Donnybrook and at one time there was a ford here and it is subject to periodic serious flooding and in 1628 one of the Usshers of Donnybrook Castle was drowned while trying to cross. It is a civil parish consisting of sixteen townlands, all but four of these townlands are situated in the Barony of Dublin. Donnybrook is the single biggest parish in that barony, the most southerly townlands, Annefield, Simmonscourt and Priesthouse, belong to the barony of Rathdown. The smallest of these, Annefield, is itself an enclave of Simmonscourt which gives its name to a pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society, today, the majority of Priesthouse is occupied by Elm Park Golf Club and the studios of RTÉ. The remaining townland of Sallymount - the parishs most westerly point - is in the barony of Uppercross, the television and radio studios of the national broadcaster, RTÉ, are located in Priesthouse, Donnybrook. Donnybrook is in the Dáil Éireann constituency of Dublin South-East and the Pembroke-Rathmines local electoral area of Dublin City Council, Donnybrook is home to the all-girls Muckross Park College

10.
The Saturday Night Show
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The Saturday Night Show is a talk show hosted by Brendan OConnor broadcast on RTÉ One between 2010 and 2015. The show features guest interviews, audience participation and live music, the Saturday Night Show is broadcast every Saturday night during the autumn-spring season directly after the main evening news. Following Pat Kennys stepping down as host of The Late Late Show in 2009, RTÉ announced that Ryan Tubridy, host of his own Saturday night chat show, would be Kennys replacement. Tubridy Tonight had aired since 2004 and had drawn an audience of up to half a million since the first series. The departure of Tubridy to the Friday night slot left a gap in the schedule, in late 2009 RTÉ announced that it was to commission a new Saturday night entertainment show that would be fronted by an established name or a combination of established names. Miriam OCallaghan and Gerry Ryan, two broadcasters who lost out in the battle to succeed Kenny as host of The Late Late Show, were two names that were mentioned as possible hosts. It was reported by the Evening Herald that the programme would have a budget of €90,000 per programme, newspaper reports in late 2009 revealed that the new chat show would be hosted by Sunday Independent journalist Brendan OConnor and Lucy Kennedy, however, these reports were unfounded. In a new departure RTÉ decided to pit two new chat shows against each other, whichever chat show proved successful would be recommissioned for a further series. The Saturday Night Show made its debut on 30 January 2010 for a run of eight programmes. Peaches Geldof and Jim Corr were the first interviewees while Republic of Loose were the first musical guests, following the completion of both The Saturday Night Show and Tonight with Craig Doyle it was decided to recommission the former for a second series. It proved more popular with the audience than Craig Doyles show which was panned by the critics, on 14 March 2015, OConnor announced that the programme would end that May, with Ray DArcy to take over the Saturday night slot from the following autumn. The Saturday Night Show achieved cult status for numerous incidents, many of them rather coincidentally involving the theme of homosexuality. Corr also argued that change is a hoax and that a secret society is trying to establish a one-world government. British entertainer Michael Barrymore also appeared on the first series, during a bizarre interview Barrymore pretended to be a sheep before claiming to be the father of Jedward. The audience applauded as DArcy continued, If you listened to Enda Kenny during the week, hes the longest-serving TD, hes been eight years as leader of Fine Gael and now he decides hes going to be himself. Garret FitzGerald made his final TV appearance on the show in 2011, Alex Reid proposed to Chantelle Houghton when the British celebrities appeared on the show on an episode broadcast on 8 October 2011. Oliver Callan announced he was gay on the show on an episode broadcast on 29 October 2011. The Saturday Night Show continued its gay theme by having Chris Burch, johnny Robinson was a guest on The Saturday Night Show on 3 December 2011

11.
Saturday Night with Miriam
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Saturday Night with Miriam is a televised talk show first broadcast on RTÉ One in the summer of 2005. The show runs for six weeks as a filler, and is overseen by Miriam OCallaghan. Saturday Night with Miriam, airs during summer months on RTÉ One when programmes such as The Late Late Show, the show has a wide variety of guests, often including musicians, who usually perform on the show. The Duckworth Lewis Method made their debut on Saturday Night with Miriam in 2009s season opener. The first two series were pre-recorded show was broadcast on Saturday nights after the evening news, lasting approximately 60 minutes. In the 2007 series, the programme began to broadcast live, the shows first guests included Charlie McCreevy, Paul Brady, D. J. Carey and Ray DArcy. The programme received thirty-six percent of the adult audience, the series was also run in summer 2006 and a third series ran in 2007. The fourth series in 2008 was very popular and achieved a forty percent audience, people such as Mary Coughlan, Enda Kenny, Cherie Blair and Jade Goody appeared on the series. In 2009, the series returned for a series, with RTÉ making the announcement on 4 June 2009. This happened after it was announced that she would not be the new host of The Late Late Show, OCallaghan also got her first radio programme, filling in for Eamon Dunphy on Miriam Meets. Newly elected politician George Lee was one of the first guests of the fifth series, the final episode of the fifth series received 422,000 viewers, a 35% audience share. OCallaghan confirmed that the series would return in 2013, the show returned in the summer of 2014 for another series, running from Saturday 5 July until Saturday 23 August 2014 on RTÉ One. The 2014 season was pre-recorded on Fridays, the show returned in the summer of 2015 for another series commencing Saturday 20 June 2015 and will run until Saturday 8 August 2015 on RTÉ One. The 2008 series got an average viewing audience of 425,000, Miriam at RTÉ Television Saturday Night With Miriam at the Internet Movie Database

12.
Tubridy Tonight
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Tubridy Tonight is a talk show hosted by Ryan Tubridy that aired on RTÉ One for five seasons between 2004 and 2009. The programme featured guest interviews, audience participation and live music both a guest music group and the house band. Tubridy Tonight aired every Saturday night, except during the summer months, the shows house musical act was Clint Velour and the Camembert Quartet. Tubridy Tonight was the first successful Saturday night chat show to be broadcast by RTÉ since the ending of Kenny Live in 1999. Upon Gay Byrnes retirement from The Late Late Show in 1999, RTÉ announced that Pat Kenny, host of his own Saturday night chat show, Kenny Live had aired since 1988 and had been a staple of the RTÉ schedule since the first series. The departure of Pat Kenny to the Friday night slot left a gap in the schedule, Saturday Live, a programme that had originally aired in the late 1980s and featured a different host every week, was revived as a replacement. The second coming of the show proved unpopular and was ended after one series. Following the axing of Saturday Live RTÉ declined to produce a Saturday night chat show, on 9 May 2004, RTÉ announced that Ryan Tubridy would host a new Saturday night chat show that coming autumn. Tubridy Tonight made its debut on 16 October 2004 for a run of ten programmes. It featured Gráinne and Síle Seoige, Hector Ó hEochagáin and Royston Brady as the first interviewees, the programme received relatively good reviews, with Shane Hegarty of the Irish Times describing the show as having gotten off to a ropey start but improved as it went along. Hegarty bemoaned the fact that the show was broadcast live as it added nothing to the show apart from a weak caption competition for viewers, an element of the programme which included audience participation was described as a meek replication of Graham Nortons old routine. The new chat show proved popular with audiences and, after the run of ten shows ended. Tubridy Tonight was broadcast from Studio 4 in the RTÉ Television Centre at Donnybrook and that studio was also home to the shows Friday night rival The Late Late Show. As RTÉs biggest, the studio holds 200 audience members, similar to American chat shows, Tubridy Tonight had no opening titles and borrowed its informal bantering style from US entertainers such as David Letterman and Conan OBrien. The studio was revamped for series five in 2008, with the addition of a used by guests. The show followed a simple format, there were usually three interviewees as well as a musical guest. Tubridy Tonight conducted the last live television interview with model and socialite, the interview took place on 24 November 2007 during the fourth season of the chat show. In 2008, it featured a fight between chefs Kevin Dundon and Dylan McGrath over their styles of cooking, the duo were on the show to promote Guerrilla Gourmet

13.
Talk show
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A talk show or chat show is a television programming or radio programming genre in which one person discusses various topics put forth by a talk show host. Usually, guests consist of a group of people who are learned or who have experience in relation to whatever issue is being discussed on the show for that episode. Other times, a single guest discusses their work or area of expertise with a host or co-hosts, a call-in show takes live phone calls from callers listening at home, in their cars, etc. Sometimes, guests are already seated but are introduced and enter from backstage. There have been many notable talk show hosts, in many cases, there are several major formats of talk shows. Generally, each subgenre predominates during a specific programming block during the broadcast day, Breakfast chat or early morning shows that generally alternate between news summaries, political coverage, feature stories, celebrity interviews, and musical performances. Late morning chat shows that two or more hosts or a celebrity panel, and focus on entertainment and lifestyle features. Daytime talk shows, generally featuring a host, a guest or a panel of guests, and these shows may feature celebrities, political commentators, or ordinary people who present unusual or controversial topics. The hosts are often comedians who open the shows with comedy monologues, Sunday talk or political discussion shows are a staple of network programming in North America. These shows feature elected political figures and candidates for office, commentators, syndicated daytime shows may appear overnight in some markets, and some afternoon programs have similar structures to late night talk shows. These formats may vary across different countries or markets, Late night talk shows are especially significant in the United States. Breakfast television is a staple of British television, the daytime talk format has become popular in Latin America as well as the United States. Talk-radio host Howard Stern also hosted a show that was syndicated nationally in the USA. The tabloid talk show genre, pioneered by Phil Donahue but popularized by Oprah Winfrey was extremely popular during the last two decades of the 20th century, politics are hardly the only subject of American talk shows, however. Sports talk shows are very popular ranging from high-budget shows like The Best Damn Sports Show Period to Max Kellermans original public-access television cable TV show Max on Boxing. Craigslistin in Philly is a show you can attend at Plays & Players theatre in Philadelphia. The host is Aaron and they comment on and invite acts, to be considered one just has to post on craigslist mentioning the show in your post helps. Talk shows had been broadcast on television since the earliest days of the medium, joe Franklin, an American radio and television personality, hosted the first television talk show

14.
Late-night talk show
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A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show popular in the United States, where the format originated. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the news, guest interviews, comedy sketches. The late-night talk show format was popularized, though not invented, typically the shows host conducts interviews from behind a desk, while the guest is seated on a couch. Many late night talk shows feature a band which generally performs cover songs for the studio audience during commercial breaks. Late-night talk shows are a popular format in the United States, Shows that loosely resemble the format air in other countries, but generally air weekly as opposed to the nightly airings of those in the United States. They also generally air in time slots considered to be prime time in the United States and these shows aired once a week in evening time slots that would come to be known as prime time. The first version of The Tonight Show, Tonight Starring Steve Allen, the show created many modern talk show staples included an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation, comedy bits, and musical performances. As a result, unlike Broadway Open House, Tonight proved to be a resounding success, the success of the show led Allen to get another show, entitled The Steve Allen Show, which would compete with The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights. Meanwhile, hosting duties of The Tonight Show were split between Allen and Ernie Kovacs, Kovacs had defected to NBC from his own show on the then-crumbling DuMont Television Network. Both Allen and Kovacs departed from Tonight in 1957 in order to focus on Allens Sunday night show, after the two left, the format changed similar to that of Today and was renamed Tonight. America After Dark and was hosted first by Jack Lescoulie and then by Al Collins while interviews were performed by Hy Gardner, the show was not popular leading to many NBC affiliates dropping the show. The show returned to the format that year and was renamed Tonight Starring Jack Paar. The even greater success of the show during Paars hosting resulted in many NBC affiliates re-airing the show. Paar permanently left the show in 1962, citing the reason that he could not handle the load of The Tonight Show, and he moved to his own weekly prime-time show. After Paars departure, hosting duties were filled by Groucho Marx, Mort Sahl, longtime guest host Johnny Carson took over as host of The Tonight Show in 1962 and the show was renamed The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson streamlined the format of the show, focusing more on entertainment personalities, tweaking the monologue to include more shorter jokes, Ed McMahon served as Carsons announcer while from 1962 to 1966 the band was led by Skitch Henderson, who hired, among others, Doc Severinsen. When Henderson left, Milton DeLugg took over, Severinsen took over in 1967, and served as bandleader with the NBC Orchestra. The show originated from NBC Studios in New York City but, as part of Carsons shifting the show toward a more entertainment-oriented program, moved to Burbank, California in 1972

15.
The Tonight Show
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The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show currently broadcast from the Rockefeller Center in New York City and airing on NBC since 1954. It is the worlds longest-running talk show, and the longest running and it is the third-longest-running show on NBC, after the news-and-talk shows Today and Meet the Press. Over the course of more than 60 years, The Tonight Show has undergone only minor title changes and it aired under the name Tonight for several of its early years, eventually settling on The Tonight Show after the seating of long-time host Johnny Carson in 1962. In 1957, the show briefly tried a more news-style format and it has otherwise remained a talk show throughout its run. The Tonight Show began broadcasting in 1954 and it has had six official hosts, beginning with Steve Allen, followed by Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Conan OBrien, and Jimmy Fallon. It has had recurring guest hosts, a practice especially common during the Paar. Carson is the longest-serving host to date, the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson aired for 30 seasons between October 1962 and May 1992. Leno, however, has the record of having hosted the greatest number of total televised episodes, during Johnny Carsons first eighteen years, the show ran for ninety minutes. During Johnnys 1980 contract negotiations, the show was shortened to sixty minutes, besides the guest hosts Johnny used, NBC ran The Best of Carson which was reruns of popular older shows Johnny had done. Prior to the starting of Saturday Night Live in 1975, NBC showed The Best of Carson on Saturday nights at 11,30 pm, outside of its brief run as a news show in 1957, OBrien is the shortest-serving host. OBrien hosted 146 episodes over the course of less than eight months, current host Fallon took the helm on February 17,2014. Fallon had previously hosted Late Night, and before Late Night he was a member of the cast of Saturday Night Live. From 1950 to 1951 NBC aired Broadway Open House, a variety show hosted primarily by comic Jerry Lester. Broadway… demonstrated the potential for late-night network programming. The format of The Tonight Show can be traced to a nightly 40-minute local program in New York, hosted by Allen and it was quickly retitled The Steve Allen Show. This premiered in 1953 on WNBT-TV, the local affiliate in New York City. Beginning in September 1954, it was renamed Tonight. and began its run on the full NBC network. Notes for hosting history The first Tonight announcer was Gene Rayburn, when the show became a success, Allen got a primetime Sunday comedy/variety show in June 1956, leading him to share Tonight hosting duties with Ernie Kovacs during the 1956–57 season

16.
Sky Broadband
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Sky Broadband is broadband service offered by Sky UK in the United Kingdom. With the introduction of Sky Fibre, Sky Broadband now refers to ADSL broadband products, in October 2005, Sky UK agreed to purchase the ISP EasyNet for £211 million. At the time, EasyNet were one of two companies in the UK that had major investments in Local-loop unbundling, providing Sky with access to 232 unbundled telephone exchanges. The purchased company was placed under a new Sky division, Sky Broadband, in October 2007, Sky reached the 1 million mark in terms of customer numbers, and claim to be adding one new customer every 40 seconds. By September 2009, it had 2.3 million customers, by July 2012 Sky had reached 4 million customers, and unbundled exchanges covering over 70% of the United Kingdom. By January 2017, Sky said it had 6.1 million customers, Sky agreed on 1 March 2013 to buy the fixed telephone line and broadband business of Telefónica UK, trading under the O2 and BE brands. The company agreed to pay £180 million initially, followed by a further £20 million after all customers have been transferred to Skys existing Broadband, and customers were transferred during 2014. Sky Broadband provides Sky customers with download speeds of up to 20Mbit/s, in July 2006, Sky also introduced a free broadband and calls package for its digital TV subscribers within the Sky Broadband network area. This means anyone on Sky can get free broadband and free evening & weekend telephone calls, for customers whose exchange has not been enabled for the above services, the Connect service is available using the BT Wholesale ADSL Max network. Sky launched Sky Broadband in the Republic of Ireland in February 2013, as with all DSL connections, the further the distance from the DSLAM the customer site is, the slower the line speed will be. Sky use DLM over the first 10 days of a new connection to set the line at an acceptable downstream and upstream speed in order for the connection to remain stable. In April 2012, Sky Fibre was launched almost 2 and half years after British Telecom launched BT Infinity in January 2010, during 2006, Netgear were the only manufacturer of Sky Broadband routers, which were made in white. From 2008, Netgear and Sagem were the manufacturers of the Sky Broadband routers, made in black, both routers are also distributed in smaller boxes as part of Sky UK’s low carbon scheme in turn reducing postage costs. The Sagem router unlike the Netgear router has added restrictions to features such as the built in inbound firewall settings, towards the end of 2010, D-Link started producing routers for Sky. The D-Link router is the DSL-2640S, Sky have created On Demand, which will combine Sky Broadband and Sky+ HD to offer a true on-demand service using the Ethernet socket of the Sky+ HD box and the Sky Broadband router. Sky Customers will be able to connect their Sky router to their Sky+ HD box via an Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi adapter, unlike other VOD services, On Demand video will count towards a users data usage. On 21 September 2010, the website of ACS, Law was subjected to a DDoS attack as part of Operation Payback. After the site back online a 350MB file was uploaded containing spreadsheets listing more than 8,000 Sky broadband customers accused of making unauthorized downloads of adult films

17.
ITV Granada
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ITV Granada is the Channel 3 regional service for North West England. The licence for the region has been held by ITV Broadcasting Limited since November 2008 and it is the largest independent television-franchise producing company in the UK, accounting for 25% of the total broadcasting output of the ITV network. It had been held by Granada Television, which was founded by Sidney Bernstein and this was the only surviving company of the original four Independent Television Authority franchisees from 1954, Granada Media Group merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc in 2004. It covers Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, northwestern Derbyshire, part of Cumbria, on 15 July 2009, the Isle of Man was transferred to ITV Granada from ITV Border. Broadcasting by Granada Television began on 3 May 1956 under the North of England weekday franchise and it was marked by a distinctive northern identity, and used stylised letter G logo forming an arrow pointing north, often with the tagline Granada, from the north. Granada plc merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc in 2004 after a duopoly had developed over the previous decade, Granada Television Ltd still legally exists. Along with most other companies owned by ITV plc, it is listed on www. companieshouse. gov. uk as a Dormant company. Other companies listed are Granada Television International and Granada Television Overseas Ltd, the North West region is regarded as ITVs most successful franchise. The Financial Times and The Independent once described Granada Television, the franchise holder. Nine Granada programmes were listed in the BFI TV100 in 2000, some of its most notable programmes include Coronation Street, Seven Up. The Royle Family, The Jewel in the Crown, Brideshead Revisited, World in Action, University Challenge, notable employees have included Paul Greengrass, Michael Apted, Mike Newell, Jeremy Isaacs, Andy Harries, Russell T Davies and Leslie Woodhead. Granada Television, a subsidiary of Granada Ltd, originated in Granada Theatres Ltd and it was founded in Dover in 1930 by Sidney Bernstein and his brother Cecil. The company was incorporated as Granada Ltd in 1934 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1935 and it is named after the Spanish city of Granada. Channel 59 from Winter Hill and started broadcasting in colour in the Autumn of 1969, the Bernsteins became involved in commercial television, a competitor to the cinema chains. Bernstein bid for the North of England franchise, which he believed would not affect the companys largely southern-based cinema chain, in 1954, the Independent Television Authority awarded Granada the North of England contract for Monday to Friday, with ABC serving the same area on weekends. The North and London were the two biggest regions, Granada preferred the North because of its tradition of home-grown culture, and because it offered a chance to start a new creative industry away from the metropolitan atmosphere of London. Compare this with London and its suburbs—full of displaced persons, and, of course, if you look at a map of the concentration of population in the North and a rainfall map, you will see that the North is an ideal place for television. Bernstein selected a base from Leeds and Manchester, Granada executive Victor Peers believed Manchester was the preferred choice even before executives toured the region to find a suitable site

18.
The Beatles
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The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them. They acquired the nickname the Fab Four as Beatlemania grew in Britain the next year, from 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road, after their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers of varying lengths. McCartney and Starr, the members, remain musically active. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in November 2001. The Beatles are the band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act, according to the RIAA, the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazines list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, as of 2016 and they have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and they were also collectively included in Time magazines compilation of the twentieth centurys 100 most influential people. In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a group with several friends from Quarry Bank school. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that a local group was already using the other name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after he, in February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the band. The fourteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, after a month of Harrisons persistence, they enlisted him as their lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennons Quarry Bank friends had left the group, the three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They used the name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer. By early July, they had changed their name to the Silver Beatles, allan Williams, the Beatles unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg, but lacking a full-time drummer they auditioned and hired Pete Best in mid-August 1960

19.
Archbishop of Dublin (Roman Catholic)
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The Archbishop of Dublin is the title of the senior cleric who presides over the Archdiocese of Dublin. The Church of Ireland has a role, heading the United Dioceses of Dublin. In both cases, the Archbishop is also Primate of Ireland, the Archbishop has his seat at Saint Marys Pro-Cathedral, though formally Dublins cathedral is still Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin. Several of these functioned as churches and the most powerful of all was Glendalough. In the early church in Ireland, the church had a monastic basis, there were bishops but not organised dioceses in the modern sense, and the offices of abbot and bishop were often comprised in one person. Sitric also provided for the building of Christ Church Cathedral in 1038 with the lands of Baldoyle, Raheny, the Bishop of Dublin answered to the Archbishop of Canterbury and did not attend councils of the Irish Church. The Diocese of Dublin continued to acknowledge the jurisdiction of Canterbury until 1096, the Synod of Rathbreasail was convened in 1111 by Gillebert, Bishop of Limerick, on papal authority. It fixed the number of dioceses in Ireland at twenty-four, Dublin was not included, the city being described as lying in the Diocese of Glendalough. It was incorporated into the system of Irish dioceses from 1152, from 1121, the fifth and last Bishop of Dublin was one Gréne, consecrated at Lambeth by Ralph, Archbishop of Canterbury. The part of North County Dublin known as Fingall was taken from Glendalough Diocese, the new Archdiocese had 40 parishes, in deanaries based on the old senior monasteries. All dependence upon English churches such as Canterbury was also ended, gregory, the existing Bishop of Dublin, was elevated as the first Archbishop, with the Bishops of Kildare, Ossory, Leighlin, Ferns, and Glendalough reporting to him. The second Archbishop was Lorcán Ua Tuathail, previously Abbot of Glendalough, Saint Laurences successor was a Norman, and from then onward to the time of the Reformation, Dublins Archbishops were all either Norman or English. High offices in the Church were never free of political influence, Archbishop Henry of Londons name appears in the text of the Magna Carta along with the names of English Bishops as witnesses. In 1185, the Pope had granted a petition to combine the Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough, the union took effect in 1216, with the approval of Innocent III, and the dioceses have remained merged ever since. The statutes mention the Chapters of both St. Patricks and Christ Church Cathedrals, which are granted the power to confer degrees, and the aim appears to have been to provide lectures at the former. The then Dean of St. Patricks, William de Rodyard, was elected first Chancellor of the University, in 1364, a Divinity Lecture was endowed, and in 1496, the Diocesan Synod granted stipends for the lecturers of the university. It has been said that the University never properly got started, certainly it languished, Archbishop Alen was murdered during the revolt of Silken Thomas in 1534. After the excommunication of Henry VIII in 1538 no Roman Catholic archbishop was nominated by Rome until Hugh Curwen in 1555, see the article Primate of Ireland for a discussion of the relative status of the Archbishops of Dublin and Armagh as Primates

20.
John Charles McQuaid
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John Charles McQuaid, C. S. Sp. was the Catholic Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin between December 1940 and January 1972. He was known for the amount of influence he had over successive governments. John Charles McQuaid was born in Cootehill, County Cavan, on 28 July 1895, to Dr. Eugene McQuaid and his mother died a week after his birth. His father remarried and Dr. McQuaids new wife raised John and it was not until his teenage years that John learned that his biological mother had died. In 1911 he entered Clongowes Wood Jesuit College in County Kildare with his brother Eugene, in 1913, on completion of his secondary studies, he entered the novitiate of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Kimmage, Dublin. The celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Thomas Davis, significantly McQuaid referred in his notebook to Davis famous question, What matter that at different shrines, we pray unto one God. He noted, Yes for a logical Protestant but No for Catholics and we must heed what is in the creed. If a neutral nationality be set up, if Protestants are drawn in, while serving his novitiate, he studied at University College, Dublin, where he was awarded both a first class honours BA in 1917 and MA in Ancient Classics in 1918. He was also awarded an honours Higher Diploma in Education in 1919, while acting as prefect in Blackrock College and he was ordained a priest on 29 June 1924. McQuaid attended the Gregorian University in Rome where he completed a doctorate in theology, in November 1925 he was recalled to Ireland to serve on the staff of Blackrock College. While he was being trained as a religious and then as a priest and he could have been one of the greatest missionary bishops of the century – all that energy, and intellect, would have gone through the continent like a whirlwind. These talents were unleashed instead on Dublin and on Ireland, in November 1925 McQuaid was appointed to the staff at Blackrock College in Dublin where he remained until 1939. He served as Dean of Studies from 1925–1931 and President of the College from 1931–1939, although regarded as a strict taskmaster, Dr. McQuaid strove to improve the performance of average and poor students. Holy Ghost priest Michael OCarroll was a student in Blackrock when McQuaid was appointed Dean of Studies. He recounts how, when McQuaid discovered that a class of sixth-year boys lacked even the rudiments of Latin late in term, he announced in his low steely voice, Gentlemen we shall begin with mensa. By the end of term, his systematic exposition of grammar. At Blackrock he soon made his name as an administrator and as a headmaster with detailed knowledge of educational developments in other countries, in an appreciation of Dr McQuaid on the 25th anniversary of his consecration as Archbishop, Father Roland Burke Savage S. J. In teaching the theory of structure to his honours leaving class

21.
The Meaning of Life (TV series)
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The Meaning of Life is an Irish religious television programme, broadcast on RTÉ One. Presented by Gay Byrne, each edition involves the veteran broadcaster interviewing a prominent public figure, interviews with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and actors Gabriel Byrne and Brenda Fricker during the second series attracted media attention. Ahern spoke of his religious habits, Byrne and Fricker of being abused as children. The ninth series began airing on 4 May 2014, john Boland of the Irish Independent claimed the series became more religious in thrust and tone as it progressed. He described the episode featuring Neil Jordan as a bizarre encounter, Jordan answered such questions as Do you think your religion might return to you on your deathbed. and Do you think theres a day of reckoning. The Irish Timess Kevin Courtney said of The Meaning of Life, Byrne prefers not to discuss his own faith, An average of 247,000 viewers tuned into the first four episodes of the series, featuring interviews with Farrell, Adams, Binchy and Keating. The episode featuring Keating attracted the most viewers, with a total of 258,000 reported, next was the Adams interview, with 251,000 viewers. This was followed by the interview with Binchy which had 231,000 viewers

22.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Irish TV series)
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Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. was the Irish version of the British quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Which aired on RTÉ One from 2000 to 2002 and presented by Gay Byrne, the format was the same as on the British show, and the 15 incremental prize amounts had the same numeric values, from 100 up to 1,000,000. These values were denominated in Irish pound in 2000 and 2001, the Irish version was made by Tyrone Productions under license from Celador, the British originators. The stage, music, and format were identical to the original British format, the quizmaster was Gay Byrne, who was famous as the longtime host of The Late Late Show, and was making one of several returns from retirement. The top prize fell from IR£1m to €1m after the changeover at the beginning of 2002. The show had several runs over consecutive Sunday evenings, after two years the initial sponsorship contract ended. No further sponsor was found, and production ceased, in June 2001, contestant Shane ODoherty was asked, as the 13th question, in what part of the body the lunula was. He used his phone-a-friend lifeline to ring a physician, who said it was in the heart, the required answer was the fingernail, and so ODohertys winnings fell from £125,000 back to the guaranteed £32,000. In fact, a lunula is any crescent or moon-shaped structure, ODoherty protested that, since both answers were correct, he should not have been eliminated. He threatened to sue the producers, and the controversy generated media debate for two weeks, eventually he was allowed to return to the show. He was asked another question, and opted to pass and keep the £125,000 he had previously accrued

23.
BBC Two
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BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It covers a range of subject matter, but tending towards more highbrow programmes than the more mainstream. Like the BBCs other domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television licence and it is a comparatively well-funded public service network, regularly attaining a much higher audience share than most public service networks worldwide. Originally styled BBC2, it was the third British television station to be launched, a high-definition version of the channel launched on 26 March 2013, replacing BBC HD. British television at the time of BBC2s launch consisted of two channels, the BBC Television Service and the ITV network made up of regional companies. Both channels had existed in a state of competition since ITVs launch in 1955, the 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, and that ITV lacked any serious programming. It therefore decided that Britains third television station should be awarded to the BBC, prior to its launch, the new BBC2 was promoted on the BBC Television Service, the soon to be renamed BBC1. The animated adverts featured the campaign mascots Hullabaloo, a mother kangaroo, however, at around 18,45 a huge power failure, originating from a fire at Battersea Power Station, caused Television Centre, and indeed much of west London, to lose all power. BBC1 was able to continue broadcasting via its facilities at Alexandra Palace, associated-Rediffusion, the London weekday ITV franchise-holder, offered to transmit on the BBCs behalf, but their gesture was rejected. At 22,00 programming was officially postponed until the following morning, there was believed to be no recording made of this bulletin, but a videotape was discovered in early 2003. By 11,00 on 21 April, power had restored to the studios and programming began. The launch schedule, postponed from the night before, was successfully shown that evening. In reference to the cut, the transmission opened with a shot of a lit candle which was then sarcastically blown out by presenter Denis Tuohy. To establish the new identity and draw viewers to it. The production chosen was The Forsyte Saga, a adaptation of the novels by John Galsworthy, featuring well-established actors Kenneth More. Unlike BBC1 and ITV, BBC2 was broadcast only on the 625 line UHF system and this created a market for dual standard receivers which could switch between the two systems. On 1 July 1967, during the Wimbledon Championships, BBC2 became the first channel in Europe to begin broadcasts in colour. The thirteen part series Civilisation was created as a celebration of two millennia of western art and culture to showpiece the new colour technology, BBC1 and ITV later joined BBC2 on 625-line UHF band, but continued to simulcast on 405-line VHF until 1985

24.
The Gay Byrne Show
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The Gay Byrne Show was an Irish radio programme, which ran from 1973 until 1998. The programme was presented by Gay Byrne, and aired Monday to Friday for two each day. It was a favourite of Irish housewives, before Byrnes retirement in 1998, he was helped by Gareth OCallaghan and then Des Cahill. Future Labour Party face Alex White edited the show for four years, the Gay Byrne Hour began broadcasting on 2 February 1973. It featured many Irish taboo subjects, with forums and discussions, in 1979, because of an extended air time, the programme was retitled The Gay Byrne Show. The shows reporter was Joe Duffy, in 1976, Byrne won a Jacobs Award for his programme. Duffy also won a Jacobs Award in 1992, in 1984, the show received letters in response to a report by Kevin OConnor on the death of schoolgirl Ann Lovett from childbirth. Byrne and two actors read on air stories of rape, abortion and sexual abuse, speculation that Byrne would leave his show began in January 1998. In August of that year, a spokeswoman for the Director of Radio confirmed the show would end, on 16 December 1998, while presenting his programme in Studio 5, Mike Murphy interrupted the programme and escorted a surprised Byrne into Studio 1. An audience of 150 celebrities and guests greeted Byrne, the then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and President Mary McAleese were among the guests. The final show was broadcast on Grafton Street, on Christmas Eve 1998, Byrne later spoke of his regret at not having retired from presenting the show five years earlier. He also claimed that the craziest thing he had ever done was present the show live for so long, others featured in the series included Bono, Éamon de Valera, James Joyce, Patrick Pearse, Mary Robinson, Oscar Wilde and W. B. Byrne commented in The Irish Times in 2010, RTÉ Libraries and Archives – 1990s

25.
Terenure
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Terenure is a mainly residential suburb of Dublin, Ireland, largely in the administrative area of Dublin City Council but with parts in the administrative county of South Dublin. Terenure is a suburb of Dublin and straddles the administrative areas of Dublin City Council and it is located south of Harolds Cross and north of Rathfarnham, and also borders the suburbs of Templeogue, Rathgar, Kimmage and Perrystown. Terenure Cross was at one time a terminus for the city trams, the modern tram system—the Luas—does not take in Terenure, but it is still served by the numbers 15, 15a and 16 bus, among others. Terenure, Drimnagh and Kimmage, on the side of Dublin City, were given to the Barnewell family by King John in 1215. The Barnewells gave some of the land to St John The Baptist Hospital outside Newgate, Terenure passed through the hands of various owners since then, including what is now Terenure College. In the seventeenth century the landowners were the Deane family, whose most notable member was Joseph Deane, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. Fortfield House was built around 1785 by a later Chief Baron Barry Yelverton and it has not yet been established how the lands reverted to the crown within 40 years. On February 2,1941 during World War II, the German Luftwaffe bombed Terenure, injuring seven people, schools within the Terenure area include St. Josephs BNS, Presentation Primary school, Presentation College, Terenure College and Our Ladys Secondary school. The Catholic parish church of St. Joseph in Terenure is an edifice with a stained glass window by Harry Clarke. St. Josephs school is on the church grounds, along with Rathgar and the area around Portobello, Terenure has traditionally been the home of many of Dublins Jewish population. Terenure Synagogue, Dublins main synagogue is on Rathfarnham Road, the author James Joyce, who was born nearby at 41 Brighton Square in Rathgar on 2 February 1882, was baptised at St. Josephs church on 5 February by Rev. John OMulloy. His mother, Mary Jane Murray, was born 90 metres from the church at Terenure Cross in 1859 in the pub owned by her father, John Murray, the village was home to actors, writers and musicians including Donal McCann and Máirtín Ó Direáin. Terenure is the home of Terenure College RFC, a rugby club in Division 1A of the AIB All Ireland League. Terenure Football Club provide schoolboy, schoolgirl and adult soccer for men and women to the surrounding area, CYM Sports club is also in Terenure. Terenure College is nicknamed The Gick, particularly in a rugby context, Gick is Irish slang for excrement. The nickname is derived from the rhyming of Terenure and manure, list of towns and villages in Ireland Terenure College website Terenure College RFC website St. Josephs BNS website Terenure Football Club website Our Ladys Secondary School

26.
Irish Examiner
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Its main national rivals are The Irish Times, and the Irish Independent. The Irish Examiner is available on the Irish Newspaper Archives website up to 2003 you will only find Black-And-White microfilm pages, the paper was founded by John Francis Maguire under the title The Cork Examiner in 1841 in support of the Catholic Emancipation and tenant rights work of Daniel OConnell. Historical copies of The Cork Examiner, dating back to 1841, are available to search, during the Spanish Civil War, the Cork Examiner took a strongly pro-Franco tone in its coverage of the conflict. Though originally appearing under The Cork Examiner title, it has re-branded in recent years to The Examiner, the newspaper was part of the Thomas Crosbie Holdings group. Thomas Crosbie Holdings went into receivership in March 2013, the newspaper was acquired by Landmark Media Investments. As of 2004, its Chief Executive is Thomas J. Murphy, the newspaper was based at Academy Street, Cork for over a century, before moving to new offices at Lapps Quay, Cork in early November 2006. Tim Vaughan resigned as editor in August 2016, in March 2017, it was reported that The Irish Times was considering a bid to acquire the Irish Examiner. Circulation was 57,217 for the period January 2006 to June 2006, circulation was 50,346 for the period January 2009 to June 2009. Circulation was 46,687 for the period January 2009 to June 2010, circulation was 46,001 for the period July 2009 to December 2009. Circulation was 42,083 for the period July 2011 to December 2011, circulation was 39,555 for the period July to December 2012. Circulation was 37,009 for the period July to December 2013, circulation was 35,028 for the period January to June 2014. Circulation was 34,422 for the period July to December 2014, circulation was 33,198 for the period January to June 2015. Circulation was 32,648 for the period July to December 2015, circulation was 30,964 for the period January to June 2016. Circulation was 30,090 for the period July to December 2016, Irish Media, A Critical History Since 1922 By John Horgan. Remember When - Pictures from the Irish Examiner Archive,2010 Collins Press Official website - Irish Examiner

27.
County Meath
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County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Mid-East Region and it is named after the historic Kingdom of Meath. Meath County Council is the authority for the county. The population of the county is 194,942 according to the 2016 census, the county is drained by the River Boyne. Meath is the 14th largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and it is the second largest of Leinster’s 12 counties in size and third largest in terms of population. The county town is Navan, where the county hall and government are located, although Trim, County Meath also has the only two Gaeltacht areas in the province of Leinster, at Ráth Cairn and Baile Ghib. There are eighteen historic baronies in the county and they include the baronies of Morgallion and Ratoath. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they are no longer used for administrative purposes. Their official status is illustrated by Placenames Orders made since 2003, There are 40 elected members in Meath County Council. Fine Gael hold 13 seats, Fianna Fáil hold 10, Sinn Féin hold 8, There are 2 Dáil constituencies, Meath West and Meath East. Before, there was only one constituency, the two current constituencies are within the borders of the county. The constituencies also include part of the county of Westmeath. Together they return 6 deputies to Dáil Éireann, part of the county along the Irish Sea coast, known as East Meath which includes Julianstown and Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington are part of the Louth constituency for general elections. Fianna Fáil currently hold no seats, Fine Gael have 2 in each constituency, Labour has 1 in the East constituency, the county is colloquially known by the nickname The Royal County due to its history as the seat of the High King of Ireland. It formed from the part of the former Kingdom of Mide. The seat of the High King of Ireland was at Tara, the archaeological complex of Brú na Bóinne is 5,000 years old and includes the burial sites of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, in the north-east of the county. It is a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site, the Hill of Tara, an ancient historical site. Castles at Trim, Slane, Dunsany, Killeen, religious ruins at Trim, Bective, Slane, Dunsany, Skryne

28.
Loughrea
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Loughrea is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The town lies to the north of a range of wooded hills, the Slieve Aughty Mountains, the town is also famous for its cathedral which dominates the towns skyline. The town has expanded in size significantly in recent years as it becomes a commuter town for the city of Galway. The town takes its name from Loch Riach on which it lies and it is also suggested that the towns name derives from Loch Riabhach. This alternative Irish name is used in the name of the local Irish-language multi-faith primary school, the town is located within an area that was historically called Trícha Máenmaige. Loughrea was traditionally a farming town that cut its teeth with the Tynagh mines,6 km to the east. There is now a gas powered electricity power station on the site of the mines, as well as being a dormitory town for Galway, Loughrea now hosts a number of pharmaceutical and data-processing industries. Loughreas tourist infrastructure is supported by several hotels, a resort, as well as many bed-and-breakfasts, restaurants, coffee-shops. The Cathedral of St. Brendan on the lakeshore, in the centre, is considered an important repository of Celtic-revival art. St. Brendans Catholic Cathedral was designed by William Byrne in 1897 and its double transepts are an unusual architectural feature. It contains some very fine internal decoration, spring-fed, Loughrea Lake overlooked by Knockash is popular for trout, pike and perch fishing. The lake is home to many waterbirds, migratory species from Europe live at the lake during the winters, and it provides nesting grounds for other species during the summer. The lake is listed as a site of importance for the shoveller. In addition it is used for water sports and swimming. Immediately behind the Loughrea boathouse are the remains of an old crannog, the Loughrea dwellers of another time would have sought protection from raiders by living in the comparative security provided by the lake. Loughrea is connected to the M6 Dublin-Galway motorway via the N65, the town was historically served by the Midland Great Western Railway and a railway branch from Attymon Junction, in use until 1975. This line was Irelands last operational rural railway line, having outlasted most other country railway lines of this type by 10–20 years. The link road from the Ballinasloe - Galway motorway to Loughrea removed most of the remains of the track bed

29.
TV3 (Ireland)
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TV3 is a commercial free-to-air television channel operated within Ireland by the TV3 Group operated by Virgin Media Ireland and owned by Liberty Global. The channel launched on 20 September 1998 becoming the Republic of Irelands first commercial television channel, in October 1988, the Independent Radio and Television Commission was set up to regulate new independent stations. Following this TV3 was intended to be the Republic of Irelands third terrestrial channel, the original broadcasting licence was granted to a consortium Tullamore Beta Ltd in 1990. Initially their signal coverage was much poorer than that of RTÉ, TV3s broadcast was further delayed when IRTC revoked the broadcasting licence due to delays in broadcasting the channel. After a court battle the licence was restored in 1993. By 1993 an agreement was made to sell 49 per cent of the company to UTV, however, UTV pulled out of negotiations in 1995, after TV3 tried to convince existing MMDS and cable television providers to drop UTV and replace it with TV3. Cable operators declined to drop UTV Northern Ireland from its line-up, in 1997, Canadian communications company Canwest bought a major stake in the new company. In 2001, Granada purchased a 45% share in the company, by 2006 the group was sold to Doughty Hanson & Co. In 2015, Liberty Global confirmed it planned to purchase the TV3 Group, a timeshift channel TV3 +1 launched on 2 December 2014 on UPC Ireland. The channel was added to Sky Ireland on 8 April 2015, however, the channel is unavailable to viewers on Saorview, as TV3 are in dispute with its operator 2RN. TV3 HD is a high definition version of TV3, both domestic and imported programming is available in HD, mainly sporting content, TV3 HD launched on Virgin Media Ireland and Sky Ireland on 11 August 2015. The service is unavailable on Saorview. TV3 broadcasts a range of programming which in its early years depended heavily on international acquisitions. In 2008, the TV3 Group produced a three-year strategy to increase the amount of productions on the channel. Under its contract with the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, TV3 is required since 2008 to have 30% of its coming from Ireland though TV3 now produces 40% Irish produced content. In 2010 TV3 announced a target of 50% Irish programming by 2012, TV3 has also confirmed its plan to build a major new studio in 2011 which will be fully HD capable with audience capacity. The company has a staff of 200 employees to run three television channels and one on-demand online service. On average, TV3 spend about €10 million on internal productions which are generally for daytime viewers and it does not have a history of strong prime-time content, generally its home produced programmes consist of at least one independently produced programme, e. g

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Irish Independent
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The Irish Independent is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media and Irelands largest-selling daily newspaper. Aside from its material, the Independent also publishes a weekly supplement in the Irish language called Seachtain. It is a sister of the broadsheet Sunday Independent, since May 2012, the Irish Independent has been controlled by billionaire Denis OBrien after OBrien acquired a majority shareholding of parent company. Traditionally a broadsheet newspaper, it introduced a compact size in 2004. The Irish Independent described the 1916 Easter Rising as insane and criminal, in 1924, the traditional nationalist newspaper, the Freemans Journal, merged with the Irish Independent. Until October 1986 the papers masthead over the editorial contained the words incorporating the Freemans Journal, during the Spanish Civil War, the Irish Independents coverage was strongly pro-Franco, the paper criticized the De Valera government for not intervening on behalf of the Spanish Nationalists. In the 1970s, it was taken over by former Heinz chairman Tony OReilly, under his leadership, it became a more populist, market liberal newspaper—populist on social issues, but economically right-wing. By the mid-nineties its allegiance to Fine Gael had ended, in the 1997 general election, it endorsed Fianna Fáil under a front page editorial, entitled Its Payback Time. On 27 September 2005, a fortnight after the paper published its centenary edition and he was replaced by Gerry ORegan, who had until then been editor of the Irish Independents sister paper, the Evening Herald. The newspapers previous editor Stephen Rae was also editor of the Evening Herald and was appointed editor in September 2012. Fionnan Sheahan was appointed editor in January 2015, Denis OBrien successfully acquired a majority shareholding the newspaper parent company INM in May 2012. The New Irish Writing Page is the creative writing feature of its kind in any Irish or British newspaper. The Irish Independent, in cooperation with the Institute of Education, produces Exam Brief and this supplement is published in February, March and April each year. Excluding The Sun and the Daily Mirror, most of the content of which are produced in the United Kingdom, iNM-owned or partly owned titles have 58% of the newspaper market on Sunday. With the closure of the Evening Press, the Independents Evening Herald is now the only Irish national evening newspaper, another sister paper is the Sunday Independent. Other newspapers in the Independent News & Media group include the Irish Daily Star, the Independent News and Media Group had a major share in the Sunday Tribune, a Sunday broadsheet before its closure in 2011. The Independent News and Media Group also owns online business directory site Your Local that provides business information on approximately 100,000 Irish businesses. Circulation was 162,582 for the period January to December 2006, circulation was 149,906 for the period July to December 2009

31.
University Philosophical Society
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The University Philosophical Society, commonly known as The Phil, is a student paper-reading and debating society in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1683, it is referred to as the oldest student, collegial. The society is based within the Graduates Memorial Building of Trinity College, throughout its long history it has welcomed many prominent guests and some of its most notable members include Ernest Walton, John Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde. The Phils members meet every Thursday during term to discuss a paper, traditionally a paper-reading society, meetings sometimes continue the format of responses to a paper rather than debate on a motion. The Phil shares the use of its Bram Stoker Room with the College Theological Society and it holds most of its meetings in the GMBs Debating Chamber with meetings having an expected audience of above two hundred being held in the larger lecture theatres of the college. The society also hosts social events, internal competitions, sporting events, blood drives. It endeavours each year in providing debating workshops, developmental competitions for members, furthermore, it has a strong history in intervarsity debating competitions, at both an international and national level. The society publishes The Philander as an annual Freshers guide to the society, membership of the society is open to all Undergraduate and Postgraduate students, as well as all staff members of Trinity College. It offers four year membership to students of the university and this means that should a person join in their Junior Freshman year they would still be a member for their entire time of study at the college. The history of the University Philosophical Society spans over three centuries, several guises, identifies and name changes, in 1683, natural philosopher and political writer William Molyneux founded the Dublin Philosophical Society, with the assistance of his brother Sir Thomas Molyneux and future Provost St George Ashe. They intended it to be the equivalent of the Royal Society in London as well as the Philosophical Society at the University of Oxford, the society was traditionally a paper reading society, however it also included many demonstrations of the latest science and mathematical endeavour of that era. The first meeting on 15 October 1683 was in the Provosts lodgings at Trinity College, Dublin, sometime after December 1683, Provost Robert Huntington became the societys first Senior Patron, promising protection and assistance, a role the Provost of Trinity College still holds. While at the time no particular precedent existed for Trinity College to recognise it, it can be considered the colleges first such society, on 1 November 1684 William Petty was elected as the first President of the society, and William Molyneux elected as its first Secretary. The current numbering takes this as the first session of the University Philosophical Society, at the time, undergraduates were not allowed to join most College societies, such as the College Historical Society. It then became the Dublin University Philosophical Society in February 1843 when it was recognized by the college, during this time the society had its rooms in No.4 in Parliament Square with larger meetings taking place within the Examination Hall. In 1860, the Dublin University Philosophical Society changed its name to the University Philosophical Society and this makes the Phil the oldest, student, paper-reading, and collegial society in the world, as well as currently being the largest such society in Ireland. The society suffered greatly, with the rest of Trinity College during the First World War, Ireland was still part of the British Empire during the outbreak of the war and so many Irish enlisted. Interestingly however there was a mixture between members who predominantly described as being part of the Protestant Ascendancy and those who believed more in Irish republicanism

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Trinity College, Dublin
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Trinity College is the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin, a research university in Ireland. It is one of the seven ancient universities of Britain and Ireland, originally it was established outside the city walls of Dublin in the buildings of the dissolved Augustinian Priory of All Hallows. Trinity College was set up in part to consolidate the rule of the Tudor monarchy in Ireland, although Catholics and Dissenters had been permitted to enter as early as 1793, certain restrictions on their membership of the college remained until 1873. From 1871 to 1970, the Catholic Church in Ireland forbade its adherents from attending Trinity College without permission, women were first admitted to the college as full members in January 1904. Trinity College is now surrounded by Dublin and is located on College Green, the college proper occupies 190,000 m2, with many of its buildings ranged around large quadrangles and two playing fields. Academically, it is divided into three faculties comprising 25 schools, offering degree and diploma courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The Library of Trinity College is a deposit library for Ireland. The first University of Dublin was created by the Pope in 1311, following this, and some debate about a new university at St. The first Provost of the College was the Archbishop of Dublin, Adam Loftus, two years after foundation, a few Fellows and students began to work in the new College, which then lay around one small square. During the eighteenth century Trinity College was seen as the university of the Protestant Ascendancy, Parliament, meeting on the other side of College Green, made generous grants for building. The first building of this period was the Old Library building, begun in 1712, followed by the Printing House, during the second half of the century Parliament Square slowly emerged. The great building drive was completed in the nineteenth century by Botany Bay. In December 1845 Denis Caulfield Heron was the subject of a hearing at Trinity College, Heron had previously been examined and, on merit, declared a scholar of the college but had not been allowed to take up his place due to his Catholic religion. Heron appealed to the Courts which issued a writ of mandamus requiring the case to be adjudicated by the Archbishop of Dublin, the decision of Richard Whately and John George de la Poer Beresford was that Heron would remain excluded from Scholarship. This decision confirmed that the position remained that persons who were not Anglicans could not be elected to Scholarship, Fellowship or be made a Professor. However within less than three decades of this all disabilities imposed on Catholics were repealed as in 1873, all tests were abolished. Prior to 1956 it was the responsibility of the local Bishop, the nineteenth century was also marked by important developments in the professional schools. The Law School was reorganised after the middle of the century, the Engineering School was established in 1842 and was one of the first of its kind in Ireland and Britain

The Inauguration of Seán T. O'Kelly in 1945. The 2nd Cavalry Squadron of the Blue Hussars escort the President, who travelled in the late Queen Alexandra's landau. The Landau and the Hussars were later scrapped.